McGuinty nixes tax credit for drivers who buy winter tires

Winter tires are a must most years! Having 'wintered' on all season tires for years and subsequently having a few close calls I decided I am feeling much safer with my dughter driving to university with snowtires.

I find it intersting that even insurers are on the page! Mr. Premier you 'nickle and dime' us with many other things, this is a good thing for the safety of drivers. You already have revenue from the 'tire disposal tax' . We pay up front. Use that to give back for a change.

How about enforcing the townships in snow 'removal' procedures instead. Nothing is going to help the danger of driving on roads that are four inches deep in slush unless the plows remove it. They're on the roads anyway dumping the salt (another thing that has to go) so why not drop the plow and clear the slush at the same time. It's ridiculous. I have snow tires and I'm only finding a difference on snow covered roads....there is traction to be had with snows. But there is absolutely no traction in the slush and ice, which is what you're driving on the majority of the time because it's never removed. Someone please send these people to the western provinces for a lesson in winter road maintenance.

Mandatory winter tires is a scam. Unless you are driving on summer or wet type tires, the need for winter tires is not required. All season tires perform the job and the best is driving to the road/weather conditions. Mandatory law like in Quebec really p****** me off as this is saying that special groups are telling Quebecors what to do. People need to be responsible for their own judgement and not to be told by other people what they should or should not do. I have driven in Manitoba for over 25 years with all seaon tires. Ended up in the ditch once due to fresh fairly heavy snow fall and a deer walking in front of the road just 50 meters when coming around the corner. Snow tires would not have helped. Even slowing down to a slow speed of 30 kms may have help. I was driving 70 kms at the time.
People must slow down in slippery conditions and ajust their distances for stopping. You can not legislate stuppidty of people.

I just bought tires for my vehicle. Now they want me to buy snow tires but they don't say how many sets I will need to buy.. I live in an area where people have to be at work for 7 and they leave at 6:45 regardless of the weather.

I think snow tires are very important for winter driving. I have driven for close to 20 years in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and recently moved to Ontario. I never bought into the idea of winter tires until now, all season are actually a summer early fall tire, winter tires are of a specific compound engineered for colder weather.Since switching over to a winter tire I feel allot more connection with the road and feel much better cornering, brakeing and acceleration. That being said I think it should be manditory to have winter tires as it would cut down on insurance claims and resulting injuries.

In my opinion, drive in bad winter weather, at your own peril. If you don't have winter tires, slow down and be careful. If you don't drive for the conditions you could have a bad accident. Again, drive at your own peril. Does anyone realize that if they buy winter tires and drive them too much in good weather they lose the tread? Then you no longer have good winter tires. You just wasted your money. Also remember global warming. Our winters are getting shorter.

I drove for many years on all season tires until five years ago. I bought a set of winter tires and must admit there is a huge difference in the control of my vehicle. I now have my two sets of tires on their own rims, so the changeover is quick and cheap. I have less problems with slow leaks from the tires and that also improves safety. I am retired now, and don't HAVE to be anywhere, but I will stick to the seasonal change to winter tires. Cost is $20 for the changeover each spring and fall, $100 a year for the set of tires, and $25 for rim replacement. Total of $165 a year is a pretty cheap investment in safety, especially when my grandchildren are in my vehicle.

This is just another example of why Dalton McGuinty's days as premier of Ontario are numbered.
We as Ontarions cannot afford for Dalton McGuinty to be premier. Liberals as a party are done. We have a conservative Prime Minister in Steven Harper. Great. A conservative Mayor in Rob Ford also great...so its time to get a conservative premier. Personally I am tired of the liberals claiming to help out the common man. The fact of the matter is the common man has reaped little to no benefit from their elected liberal officials and the sun is about to set on the liberal dictatorship. Dalton McGuinty is so greedy that he even refuses to give Ontarions a piece of their tax pie back in the form of a winter tire credit. It's with that outright disregard for the taxpayer that people will be cheering the praises of a premier ousted... Goodbye Dalton McGuinty...and Good riddence to bad rubbish...I know I would pay to have Dalton McGuinty booted out of office...It would be a lot cheaper than having him stay on...Especially because he doesnt want to give you the $25 tax credit per tire ...something that likely doesn't mean much to him considering his salary exceeds $200,000 a year...up a whopping 26% from 2007...Ask yourself...when was the last time you got a 26% raise?...Exactly....

A message from someone born in Toronto that actually gives a @$#% about the people that live and work here.

God Bless us everyone.

I just thought that a good incentive would have the government drop any sales taxes on winter tires and seasonal changeovers........How does that sound?

Just another reason for insurance companies to find ways to not have to pay out. Cover thier motives by making us believe they have our better interests at heart. How about a rebate on our insurance for the purchase? Didnt think so.

I have to agree with Larry and Cliff on this. It’s the stoopidity of people that are at fault here and Dolt McGuilty is the worst. It is debatable if snow tires really make a difference, but forcing people to get them like Quebec does is not the answer. If a tax break and/or insurance break would get people off of ¾ worn summer/all season tires, then I am all for it. I drive a 4x4 and chose my all season tires to be M/S so that I would not have to resort to winter tires as I do live in rural Ontario and the roads drift quite often in the winter. And just because I drive a 4x4, I am not stoopid enough to believe that I have any better stopping distance than a 2x4. So learn to take care of your car and be responsible enough to drive safe.
Dolt Mcguilty has got to go.

I’m from an era where we didn’t have Disc brakes, ABS, Anti-skid / Traction control, Radial tires, Front-wheel drive (although I still prefer rear-wheel drive vehicles), etc. After reading your article and living in Alberta, I wonder how we survived winter driving with these old vehicles, along with the roads / highways not being maintained as well as they are today !

The last time I was purchasing a new vehicle and after somewhat deciding on the particular vehicle, the salesman suggested that I should invest in winter tires for the car I was thinking of purchasing. I then said to him: if he felt their particular vehicle with all its anti-skid / traction control, etc, requires winter tires, then I’m not interested in the vehicle and walked out of the dealership.

I feel your promotion of winter tires is bias and totally uncalled for, you are basically saying it’s “unsafe” not to have them. This instills a desire of our politicians to dictate laws for their use as what happened in Quebec.

I’m a firm believer with all these anti-skid, traction control devices, etc., drivers “over drive” for the conditions and are just poor drivers. To mandate winter tires only encourages faster driving by these poor drivers.

goodyear triple treads are the way to go - good for all seasons - I have them and they work great...

ONT GOV are all game for reducing your costs on winter tires.....as long as it doesn't come out of their pocket.
Eliminating the "tire stewardship fee" or even the tax on winter tires would be a good start, but no, they want to pass this on to Insurance companies to reduce their rates. In Quebec, if you get injured in a car accident, it's not the insurance companies that pay for your injuries and rehab, loss of income, etc, it's the provincial gov....that's why snow tires are mandatory there...saves the province money (hopefully).
In Ontario, if you get injured in a car accident and need medical treatment or rehab, loss of income, etc, it's paid for by your car insurance company. You wonder why car insurance keeps going up and up in Ontario, it's due to injury claims. The problem with this is the ever rising costs of health care, and the payments are generally for longer terms then in other provinces. Think of it like compound interest....you keep getting more and more people on long term payments every year, and nobody going off them. Injury payments in Ontario are very lucrative compared to other provinces.....average injury claim in Ontario is $40k, compared to $10k in the next highest province.

Dalton ''Just Go Away,,and go away Pissed''Just go ...

One thing I will say about winter driving in Ottawa, there are probably less then a dozen days that snow tires really would make a huge difference. I don't think it makes much difference in the light snow falls as it's the clowns driving too fast for the conditions that have (and cause) all the accidents, they probably would be just as careless with snow tires on.
But in heavy snow, or when it's -20 and the salt doesn't work to melt the ice, that is when snow tires make a huge difference. ABS will actually increase your stopping distance on ice or hard packed snow if you don't have snow tires that can get a grip on it. I constantly see people stuck on flat ground, or even slight inclines here in the city when it snows hard.
The best thing people can do is stay home if it's showing really hard.

When you buy winter tires make sure you are buying good ones ( Look in to Consumer Reports, Lemon Book, etc. ) Believe it or not, some of the all season tires are better for snow and ice (good for summer too) then some winter tires

Good business for the tyre manufacturers and garages ,not to mention the inconvenience involved in storing and changing back and forth of wheels and tyres . What's more important is better driving habits for folks on the road .People get a false sense of safety with snow tyres and thus drive more careless during snowy conditions .

People, you can get a set of cheap snow's mounted on steel wheels for about $600 at your local CDN Tire store. The cheapest snows are still far better that the most expensive all-seasons. Snows last about 5 seasons = $120/yr plus about $40 to put on in the fall and $40 to take off in the spring. $200 tops per year is peanuts and I consider it very, very cheap insurance for the safety of me, my wife, my children and others around me. Most can switch over the tires in their own driveway saving the $80 bucks and bringging that annual cost down further. And if you really want to count all the beans the actual rubber tires themselves don't cost a single penny...because whatever milage you do on the winters is how much longer your all seasons are going to last you. I see all these dbags with cars valued at $10k, $20k, $40k, $60k ect...yet they cheap out on snows that effectively cost maybe $150-$200/yr to have. Please don't be one of those guys to slide a few few too long and crash into me....I see you have no snow's...and you'll receive a beating on the spot just for being dumb.
It's really a no-brainer...unfortunatley %50 of the popular have littlel to no brains!

Mike the cheapest winter tires ( snow & ice ) are not better that the good all-seasons tires for winter.

Most expensive all-seasons tires are not the best all-seasons tires. ( Look in too Consumers reports, Lemon Book etc. )